On the evening of March 15, two young trans women friends Val Gibson and Ren were on their way to the women’s restroom at Uptown Lounge, 1136 W. Lawrence Ave., when a barback allegedly told another one of their friends who was at their table that Gibson “wasn’t allowed in the women’s restroom.”
Uptown Lounge is a small two-room bar owned by Gene Stokes.
Gibson told this publication that she continued to use the women’s restroom, which she had previously done four times that evening without incident, and while she was in one of the two stalls, one of the male Uptown Lounge security guards opened the door to the restroom and yelled, “Is there a man in here?” During this time Ren said she was in the other stall.
According to Gibson and Ren’s accounts, one of the women who were leaving the restroom told the security guard, “He’s in the stall.” Gibson told this publication that a security guard opened the door and asked that question. She later learned that this happened after a different woman complained to him about her being in the women’s restroom.
Ren told this publication that security didn’t care that Gibson told him she is a trans woman. She added that the security guard responded to her with, “It doesn’t matter” and “I don’t care.” Gibson said staff kicked them out of the bar with the security guard following them all the way to the door.
When this publication reached out to Stokes via email for a response, he refuted part of what Gibson and Ren said about the alleged incident. Stokes said in the April 25 email that, “As the situation progressed, security concludes two people are in the stall together ,which is grounds for ejection. They were asked to come see security when they were done. They were then asked to leave. We rely solely on the eyewitness account of our security person, who has been an employee for 25 years.”
Stokes added in his email response to Windy City Times that when Gibson and Ren presented their ID’s at the entrance, Gibson’s stated “Male 30” and Ren’s stated “Female 21” according to Uptown Lounge’s ID scanner “which is likely what our security based their assumptions on. In our 23 years in business, the bathroom situation has never been a problem until this night. We were one of the first bars in our area to hire a trans person, who ended up working here for 10 years until he relocated out of state.
“Ren was also [a] customer for months and always used the women’s restroom without issue along with other transgender customers. What we do believe is that everyone has the right to feel safe in our bar, and any and all safety concerns from any gender identity or sexual orientation must be taken seriously.”
This alleged incident runs counter to what numerous people have said about Uptown Lounge’s reputation as a community hub and safe space for LGBTQ+ people in the neighborhood. Ren said this positive reputation was why she decided to invite Gibson to join her at Uptown Lounge for the first time that evening.
Both Gibson and Ren told this publication that the way they were allegedly treated left them in “disbelief and shock.” Gibson sent an email to Uptown Lounge via the bar’s online submission form in the early morning hours of March 16 where she asked them for an explanation about the bar’s staff’s alleged transphobic treatment of her, with the hopes of receiving an apology.
The response Gibson received from Julie Clarkston-Stokes, Gene Stokes’s wife, included an apology. Gibson told this publication that it wasn’t sufficiently apologetic because it immediately redirected the blame back to her with the mention of her clothing choices.
Initial correspondence provided to Windy City Times by Uptown Lounge did not include the apology language that Clarkston-Stokes used in her email to Gibson. But after this article’s initial publication, Clarkson-Stokes contacted Windy City Times and maintained that she had apologized “three times,” in the message she sent to Gibson on the evening of March 16.
Clarkson-Stokes included what she said was the complete text of that message to this publication: “I was able to connect with one of our staff members, and I’m really sorry this happened. We genuinely are an LGBTQ+ friendly and welcoming space—that matters to us deeply. Here’s the honest truth—two women complained to our staff about a male in the women’s restroom, and when that happens, our team has to respond. It wasn’t personal, but we can’t ignore complaints when they’re made. We don’t have a gender-neutral restroom, and that’s a real limitation on our end. In the meantime, if you’re presenting in male clothing, using the women’s restroom is likely to put us in that same tough spot again. We’d love to have you back. Please feel free to reach out directly if you ever want to talk. Thank you for sending a message about it.”
Gibson decided to publicly post on Instagram about this alleged incident after she received Clarkston-Stokes’s response to her on March 16 and included the screenshot of that email response to raise awareness about what she said happened to her. Her response said Uptown Lounge is “not welcoming. You’re just tolerating and have a criteria for who is and who isn’t LGBTQ+ … This absolute non apology is disgusting and shouldn’t be tolerated.”
She also called for the LGBTQ+ community and allies to boycott Uptown Lounge over this alleged incident. She and Ren created the Take Back the Lounge campaign to amplify their message.
After that email exchange, Uptown Lounge made a public post on Instagram on March 21 that said Gibson and Ren were kicked out of the restroom because they were in the same stall, which both of them refuted when asked by this publication. That post was subsequently removed by Uptown Lounge.
In a joint statement on Instagram on March 22, Gibson and Ren shared what they said occurred at Uptown Lounge on March 15, as well as the owner’s response and their demands. They posted their demands again on March 24: “We demand a written public statement apologizing to the transgender community for the blatant transphobia that occurred on March 15th, 2026, and for the constant victim blaming you repeatedly entertain. We demand an expressed commitment to ongoing collaboration and accountability with the LGBTQ+ community regarding policies that concern our safety and well-being.”
When the Uptown co-owners didn’t respond to Gibson and Ren’s March 24 Instagram demands post, Gibson decided to take additional accountability actions. Gibson and Ren reached out to community members to join them in a peaceful protest where they staged a sit-in wearing tee-shirts that said “female presenting clothing” at Uptown Lounge that same evening.
Since that day, People’s Defense Chicago (PDC) has gotten involved to help them with their Uptown Lounge boycott, protest schedule and media campaign.
One of the organizations who has joined this boycott is the Pen and Paper trivia group, which has cancelled all their scheduled events at Uptown Lounge. Other entities were not interested in this boycott effort, according to Hugh McDonald of Take Back the Lounge.
Take Back the Lounge representatives, on behalf of Gibson, met with Stokes on April 15 for over an hour, and those representatives stated that there was no resolution to this matter that night.
Stokes said in his email response on April 25 to this publication that the Take Back the Lounge group gave him a “list of unrealistic demands that felt like retribution for a mistake that we have done everything in our power to correct. Specifically, to make a statement that we are lying about the two individuals sharing a stall. We stand behind our employees and their account of the events that took place.
“However, we do admit to making major mistakes in how security must have made Val feel, as well as our reply and public statements, and we have apologized for this numerous times. Yet Take Back the Lounge has threatened us with protests five nights a week if we didn’t sign their pre-made list of demands including the release of a false statement.”
Windy City Times observed that gender neutral signs were added to both the formerly men’s- and women’s-only restrooms when they were at the bar when that April 15 meeting took place, and learned they were put up on April 13 at the direction of Uptown Lounge management.
Stokes’ email statement to this publication on April 25 said, “We have since seen many patrons use each bathroom freely regardless of perceived gender expression without any issues, so we are hopeful that this will ease the concerns of patrons upset by this situation.”
Stokes told this publication in that same email statement that Uptown Lounge implemented this signage change “as well as LQBTQIA+ friendly training that our security will benefit from to prevent situations like these in the future.
He added that, “What we do believe is that everyone has the right to feel safe in our bar, and any and all safety concerns from any gender identity or sexual orientation must be taken seriously. We have apologized for the situation Val experienced, and have made physical changes to the bar to show our commitment to keeping our community safe, protected and cared for, and yet we feel we have been met with backlash for even trying when many businesses would not even address the situation.
Additionally, Stokes told this publication that Entertainment Partners, which he works for, has been threatened by Take Back the Lounge to stop working with Uptown Lounge and if they continued they would be “labeled transphobic.”
He added that along with the Pen and Paper trivia group, they have also seen bands and DJ’s cancel dates at his establishment. Stokes told Windy City Times that Take Back the Lounge called an Ohio venue to inform them that the performer (who was about to perform at that venue) who works with Uptown Lounge is transphobic.
According to McDonald, Stokes agreed to make a statement on behalf of Uptown Lounge that addressed Take Back the Lounge’s demands for accountability on April 20, however when that day arrived, no such statement was posted online, nor did Take Back the Lounge receive any response via email or by phone.
“We agreed to take down our current post of security videos in good faith and that we would work on a resolution with a statement to follow,” Stokes added in his April 25 email to this publication. “After talking to our attorney and discussing the blackmail and extortion tactics of Take Back the Lounge Group we decided to silence all contact with them. This situation is incredibly upsetting for both parties and we are truly and sincerely apologetic, but it has also made us feel terrified of moving forward and making any other mistakes.
NOTE: This article has subsequently been revised to include an additional response from Uptown Lounge’s owners and further clarification from Gibson on the apology issue and how she learned that someone complained about her use of the women’s restroom.
Gibson also told this publication on April 29 that she filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights on March 23 and the Uptown Chamber of Commerce on April 29 over this alleged anti-trans discrimination.